Grow the Grid, Spare the Backcountry - FERC's Oct 16th Meeting Summary

On October 16, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) took a step that makes it easier to build wires and plug in new power plants. Faster hookups and clearer planning should help retire older, dirtier plants sooner. That’s good for air, water, and the towns that sit downwind. But the land cost depends on where we run the new lines. If routes hug railroads, highways, and existing utility paths, nature keeps more of its stitching. If not, we cut up habitat we can’t easily replace.

What changed

The commission told the Midwest grid operator to spell out how and when privately financed, long-distance high-voltage direct-current lines (think big, efficient “backbones”) are included in its planning cases. Developers have 90 days to see the rules of the road. Fewer procedural dead ends means fewer years lost to process. The order didn’t force any specific line into a plan; it set expectations so future lines can be judged on the merits early, not after millions are sunk.

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Alongside that headline, the commission advanced a batch of decisions on interconnection and reliability. Basically, how quickly projects can plug into the grid and how the system prepares for heat waves, winter storms, and a flood of new demand. Taken together, the signal is: plan earlier, move faster, and clear the queue.

FERC also moved to phase out 53 regulations, mostly housekeeping rather than big policy shifts. In a direct final rule (Order No. 913), FERC set a one-year sunset (after the rule takes effect) for these items and opened a companion proceeding to handle any significant public objections. The 53 rules fall into seven buckets: 18 tied to repealed laws; 11 outdated filing requirements “not in general use”; 8 obsolete practices; 6 duplicative rules; 4 tied to repealed regulations; 4 transitional provisions; and 2 that were purely informational. In short: a cleanup aimed at clearing dead wood from the rulebook, not changing how projects are permitted. FERC Acts to Sunset Outdated Regulations

Where this lands for conservation

Speed can help conservation when it lets us shut down high-pollution plants earlier. But new long lines and substations can still carve up migration routes, fragment sage and grassland, and chip away at quiet backcountry, unless we push them onto already-disturbed ground. The good news: we know how.

The SOO Green project is a working example. An underground high-voltage line that would run for hundreds of miles inside railroad rights-of-way between Iowa and Illinois. You can argue about the details, but the basic idea is the right one: reuse scars we already have.

Maps will decide whether this season of grid building helps or harms the wild. The Department of Energy is moving forward with “National Interest” transmission corridors. Priority geographies for big lines. At the same time, the Bureau of Land Management is updating parts of its West-wide energy corridor network (the Section 368 corridors) that already steer wires and pipelines across public land. If these map sets align around rail, highway, and existing utility paths, we can concentrate impacts where they do the least damage. If they don’t, we’ll scatter cuts across intact basins and rangeland and spend years in court.

Why the push now

Demand is changing fast. Data centers and artificial-intelligence work are landing like new cities on some local grids. Reliability officials have been blunt: we need to build energy infrastructure more quickly and plan for large loads better, or we’ll lean on short-term gas plants that are easy to site but hard on air and climate. Utilities are already sketching huge spending plans to meet the surge. The question is where that buildout happens.

Likely ripple effects (next 6–18 months)

• Route debates move upstream. With clearer planning rules, fights should focus earlier on which path—a win for land and for landowners. Rail and highway co-location lowers habitat impact; fresh cuts across desert or prairie raise it (and lawsuit risk).
• Older plants retire sooner—if wires exist. The meeting advanced interconnection and reliability items, steps that make it easier and faster for new projects to plug into the grid and for the grid to plan for extreme weather and fast-growing demand. If cleaner projects are available, can connect quicker, and transmission planning is clearer, utilities have a practical path to retire older, dirtier units earlier, but only if there’s enough transmission capacity to deliver replacement power into cities.
• Map alignment becomes destiny. By speeding planning/queue work, FERC effectively accelerates which long lines advance. In parallel, the Energy Department is designating National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETCs) as priority areas that unlock federal tools. If DOE’s NIETCs and BLM’s West-wide energy corridors line up on already-disturbed routes, impacts concentrate where they do the least harm. If they don’t, projects scatter across intact habitat and litigation risk rises. The October FERC actions raise the stakes of getting these maps aligned
• Data-center scrutiny grows. State hearings will start asking a blunt question: build wires to wheel in cleaner power, or approve quick local gas plants? The land-use difference is huge.

What we should do (scars & brownfield-first)

1. Publish the “do and don’t” map. Put rail lines, highways, existing utility paths, Energy Department priority corridors, and the West-wide corridors on one public map, then add the “no-go” layers: core wildlife habitat, migration pinch points, and roadless-quality backcountry. Make it obvious where projects fly and where they slow down by design.
2. Condition speed on siting quality. If a project reuses an existing corridor, it gets fast-lane treatment. If it proposes a new swath, it must prove there’s no reasonable brownfield option, and bring extra mitigation (undergrounding through sensitive stretches, real restoration of temporary disturbance).
3. Bring the right people in early. Tribes, ranchers, county commissioners, hunters and anglers see the ground truth. Give them a real seat when lines are still pencil marks, not survey stakes. It’s cheaper to move a route on a map than rebuild trust after the bulldozer.
4. Keep score on outcomes, not miles. Don’t just count new line-miles. Track earlier retirements of old plants, avoided air pollution, and avoided fragmentation because projects reused corridors. Publish the receipts.

Bottom line

The commission’s October decisions are a net plus if we make “brownfield first” the rule, not a talking point. Build wires faster, yes, but build them on the scars we already carry: rail, highway, and utility paths, plus private land where owners want the deal.

That way, towns get cleaner power and the backcountry keeps its breath. Climate wins, communities win, and the wild still has room to roam. That’s the buildout worth backing.

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